Our solution
The two main objectives of the open data project was to ensure that a secure portal is developed to support data management prior to public release, and that such data connects to Tableau, a visualisation suite, for MOPAC analysts to produce dashboards. The analysts also required training to manage open data release and process, as well as prepare visualisations.
The Whythawk team developed an extension to produce an OData endpoint for CKAN which was deployed to a dedicated MOPAC CKAN instance. OData offers a standardised protocol for creating and consuming data. The format is extremely popular, and software as diverse as Tableau (for analysis and visualisation), Drupal (for content management), and Microsoft’s Excel are all able to accept OData as an input. Whythawk also delivered a series of courses leading change management in analyst data processes, and training on data analysis and visualisation.
Outcomes
MOPAC’s service went live in August 2014 and is being used by MOPAC analysts to develop a series of dashboards to present crime and policing data. This is published for the general public on the new London Open Data Platform which went live in late 2014.
